WHY DID SO MANY DIE? THE U.S. RESPONSE TO COVID-19? A BIG QUESTIONS COURSE

Credit Hours: 3 · Undergraduate Lower-Level

The U.S. response to the pandemic has been a disaster, and will end (if it ends!) with hundreds of thousands dead and tens of millions infected. How did this happen, and who is to blame? The main facts are now largely clear. But how to interpret them is another matter. Is this a story about how China blew up the whole world by being unwilling to admit it was facing a scary epidemic back in December and January? Is it a story about how the White House allowed Americans to die in the name of “saving the economy”? Is it a story about how selfish individuals went to the beach rather than suffer for the collective good, or a story about institutions that worked poorly? Is it all these things? We need to look back and make sense of this calamity.